The sun never sets on J's Sailing worldwide

by J Boats on 25 Oct 2017 This past fortnight was busy with many fall regattas in the northern hemisphere and a significant one in the southern hemisphere, many of them including the hyperactive active J/70 fleets around the world.

Starting Down Under, Australia is moving into their springtime and, therefore, into the world’s longest sailing summertime! No wonder so many Australians know how to sail well, nearly nine months of perfect summer sailing weather. And, what better way to kick it off than have the famous Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron in Sydney host the 2017 Australian J/70 Nationals! Great turnout and fantastic racing!

Flipping ourselves up over the Equator to Europe and Asia, we find Russian J/70 sailors completing two significant regatta series. For starters, the Russian Sailing Federation supports the Russian J/70 National Sailing League, a series of six events that start in May in Sochi (site of the Winter Olympics) and ends in Sochi in October. Just this past weekend, a fleet of 24 teams sailed J/70s in the Grand Finale at Sochi; some familiar faces to sailors on the European J/70 circuit finished on the leaderboard. Then, PROyachting with partner Ulysse Nardin, completed their summer-long weekly regatta series sailed on J/70s and hosted by the Royal YC in Moscow in an amazing “stadium sailing” venue.

Off to the west in Europe/ UK, we find the French J/80 sailors sail a tricky weekend series in the Crouesty J/Cup, hosted by YC Crouesty-Arzon, in Crouesty, France. Then, just across “La Manche”, the Hamble Winter Series completed their third weekend, hosted by the Hamble River Sailing Club in Hamble, Southampton, England for IRC fleets and the J/88 class. Still further west, we get a report from the Lough Erne J/24 fleet sailing their Autumn Series at Lough Erne YC in Ireland- they sure know how to have fun!

Hopping west across the Atlantic, a fleet of 53 teams assembled at American YC in Rye, New York to compete for the 2017 J/70 North American Championship; it was a deeply talented fleet, including two World Champions and three North American Champions. Finally, we get a report from the fun and entertaining Annapolis YC Fall Series, in Annapolis, Maryland, for ORC/ PHRF handicap fleets and one-design classes of J/22s, J/70s, J/80s, J/30s, J/35s, and J/105s.